This week, one of our members, Laura Mayo, fell
asleep in the Lord. Most of you probably don't
know or did not know Laura. She had a very long
illness with cancer. I am thankful that she received
Holy Communion just before she reposed. May her
memory be eternal. And yesterday, our dear brother
Niles was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.
Yesterday also, 20th anniversary of that tragedy
of 9 -11. And you know all the tragedy that continued
after that. We live in a world, as you know,
of suffering and death. I receive emails frequently,
and now we have a parish on our parish website,
a place to click if you want to ask for a prayer.
I receive emails constantly for prayers, people
not in this parish, far and wide. Suffering,
sick, lost a loved one, a loved one took his
or her own life, and so on and so forth. But
there's also, and I don't say this in the trite
way, but in the most profound way, because we
believe in the one who has given us life, who
came into the world, not to condemn the world,
but to save the world. We have hope, and we have
trust. And we have faith that new life is always
coming too. I received a call recently that a
woman conceived a child. The family is growing
now. Someone else gave birth. Someone else came
to the church. Someone else wants to be a catechumen.
Someone else did a good deed silently, quietly,
secretly. A very profound thing that they did.
In the church, isn't it glorious? Isn't it such
an amazing miracle that whether we live or we
die, whether we suffer or whether we are well,
whether we rejoice or lament, at every step of
the way in the church, We are given consolation.
We are given hope. That what Jesus said, that
the Son of Man didn't come to condemn the world,
but to save the world. We're given hope that
that's an actual, that's a truth, that's a reality.
We just celebrated, and today we're doing the
leave -taking of the Nativity of the Theotokos.
We celebrated her conception in December and
her birth just the other day. This is a birth
that changed the course of the world and changed
every life here. Each one of us. Each one of
us was changed profoundly by that birth. And
then through her life. And now through her intercessions.
This is the life of the church. And today we
have this Sunday, we celebrate the Sunday before
the feast day of the elevation, the exaltation
of the precious cross. Again, God is with us
through our suffering because we bear our own
crosses and in our death. Because when we were
baptized, we died to sin and death and we rose
to eternal life. And when we put this body down
and we die, We will enter into life eternal and
then be raised to glory. That's the story of
the cross. That's why that feast day is so important.
But St. Paul, and this is my sermon today on
this verse, St. Paul in Galatians, which you
heard, was encountering resistance to the cross.
Those people in Galatia, many of them were ashamed
of the cross of Christ. God decided to save the
world not through wisdom and not through power,
but through weakness. Because God's weakness
is stronger than the strength of this world.
God's foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of
this world. St. Paul writes, God forbid that
I should boast in anything except the cross.
What's he mean by that? He says he has to write
this in his own hand in large letters. You know,
he dictated his epistles. He had someone take
it down. And he's at the end of the epistle,
he's writing the words himself. God forbid that
I should boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, for whom the world has been crucified
to me and I to the world. He means. That now
he's dead to whatever criticism, whatever anger,
whatever sickness, whatever terror, whatever
evil and sin. He's dead to death because Christ
has saved him. The world can't scare him. And
his opponents, those who are ashamed of the cross,
he says in another part of his letter, because
they were promoting circumcision, he says, I
hope they castrate themselves. St. Paul could
be pretty rough. That's how deeply he felt about
this. But can anything separate us from the love
of God? He says no. But then why, brothers and
sisters, are we so afflicted with hopelessness?
Why do so many of us find our knowledge, our
information, not in here, not in the divine services
in which we are given consolation from birth
to death, but in the evening and morning news?
Replace the evening and morning news with evening
and morning prayers. and your soul will be relieved
of so much trouble. The Church of Christ announces
hope to those that are gripped with sin, who
don't know the cross, to those who have anger,
to those who are immersed in the ugly politics
and division. to those who are sick, to those
who feel hopeless. The Church of Christ, the
Word of God announces, and we should announce
by the way that we live our life, hope. We should
have those fruits of the Holy Spirit that St.
Paul mentions, that we can have now, not in the
life of the age to come, but now. Love, joy,
peace, long -suffering, goodness, kindness. faithfulness,
gentleness, self -control. We remember when we
hold our cross, when we place our cross on us,
when a child is baptized and given a cross, that
Jesus, this is important, takes part in all our
sufferings and he makes them easier. He helps
us with our struggles against temptations by
the power of the cross. And sin is forgiven.
He strives with us. Can you believe that? Believe
it. He strives with us in our quest for virtues,
for love, joy, peace, long -suffering, gentleness,
and so forth. And he uncovers our true nature.
who we are under the pile of sin that might be
on top of us. And until the end of the world,
says St. Maximus the Confessor, whose fresco
is right over there, he always suffers with us
secretly because of his goodness according to
and in proportion to the suffering found in each
one of us. Count on it. You will have resistance
to the gospel. That's what St. Paul is saying
in that verse from Galatians. Count on it. You're
going to have resistance. I'm going to tell you
a story, a short little scene. Some of you have
heard me say it. This is from... The life of
Father Felaretos of Mount Athos. He died in 1965.
He was a monk for 60 years at the monastery of
Costa Monitou. He was sitting outside on a bench,
looking downcast, looking rather blue, and a
novice came up to him and says, Father, Why are
you looking sad? Because Father Filaretos was
a man of deep, profound prayer, had experienced
the uncreated light, was a river of God's love.
When he would serve the Divine Liturgy, it was
said that in the small chapel where he was assigned,
sometimes he would stop, and the singers knew.
The curtain was closed, the door was closed.
And for one hour, he was in prayerful ecstasy.
So that's not going to work in a parish. I know
that. So besides, I'm not Father Philaretos.
But he was looking extremely blue. And the novice
said, Father, what's on your mind? Why are you
so sad? He said, Son, God's abandoned me. The
novice was shocked. God's abandoned you, Father.
What do you mean? He said, Son, no temptations
today. Now, is this man neurotic? No. He knew
that in the world you will have tribulations.
In the world, if you hold the cross of Christ
close to you, you will have resistance from yourself,
from the devil, and from... the fallen angels,
the demons. You will have temptations. You will
have troubles. You will have difficulties of
all sorts. And he was saying, didn't happen today.
What's wrong? Am I slipping? Is my heart not
with the Lord? Let's get our hearts with the
Lord, brothers and sisters. Remember that there's
always going to be a tension with the world when
we hold the cross. Don't be ashamed of the cross,
but do your Christian work. Because when a Christian
does his or her work in this world, it's done
in union with Christ. It's not just us. It's
Christ. When we fast, it's Christ who fasts in
us. When we pray, it's Christ who prays in us.
When we give alms, it's Christ who gives alms
to that person. Christ longs to fast within us.
He longs to pray in us. He longs to show mercy
in us. The church, as I said, this glorious body
of grace, it's not about a list of rules, a prescription
for behaving ourselves. Like this man in the
gospel, the first gospel you heard. Master, what
do I need to do to inherit eternal life? I remember
last year it occurred to me and I said to you,
that's like a man coming up to a woman that's
really attractive and says, what do I need to
do so you fall in love with me and marry me?
He misses the point. It's about total commitment
and love. The commandments of Christ are Christ.
I'll leave you with this wonderful verse, which
gives me heart. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty by which Christ has made us free. Do
not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Amen. To our Lord be glory, now and ever, to
ages of ages.